


If You Love Something...

by PenNameArtist



Category: Planes (Movies)
Genre: #bittersweet, #the way that things are, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24658327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenNameArtist/pseuds/PenNameArtist
Summary: He was the best of both worlds, the bold colors of his team and the bright hues of his life’s passion. He looked beautiful, really…But of course, Blade would never say that outright.
Relationships: Dusty Crophopper/Blade Ranger
Comments: 15
Kudos: 18





	If You Love Something...

**Author's Note:**

> Arguably the best writing I have made to date. _Solicitousness_!
> 
> Short story, but like hell am I cramming this in with my Props to the Proppies stories. XD

Daylight faded over the rugged cliffs of the park, the sunset painting the skies in blossoming pinks and silky purples, and the same bright, vibrant oranges that draped across the Piston Peak Air Attack’s newest team member.  
“The paint looks good on you.” Blade commented, as the young air tractor rolled out onto the tarmac. After having to switch between his racing and firefighter liveries so often, Maru made the stupidly obvious-feeling idea that he should find a way to combine the two. So that’s what he did - for a good solid week, he planned a suitable livery design with the minds of Maru, Dottie, and Paul - a former mechanic from the team and the tug’s closest tech-nerd friend. And finally they settled on a singular, interchangeable design, bringing together the old and the new in a brilliant, gradiently sunset-themed palette.  
He looked the same as he did when he showed up to the park from the front - the orange was bright and familiar above the pristine white of his belly. His blue lightning-bolt shaped stripe was gone, replaced with the dual black chevrons and three white stripes across his backside - the stripes he’d earned from his certification. But there was another little surprise; Nearly halfway down his fuselage, right underneath his canopy, the sunny orange began to change, becoming darker and richer until it was a fiery, blazing red across his flanks and tail, where his racing number and serial number both were branded boldly over his paint. He was the best of both worlds, the bold colors of his team and the bright hues of his life’s passion. He looked beautiful, really…  
But of course, Blade would never say that outright.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more awestruck from a design before this...” the small airplane told them, giving himself a look-over through the circular mirror on the wall in the garage. As the beams of the sun hit his paint, Blade noticed the reds had a subtle sparkle to them, something you’d only notice when the sun hit it just right.  
Dusty seemed to notice the shimmer as well, and as he stepped out fully into the warm lighting, he seemed to dazzle in front of the helicopter and the forklift, and not _just_ from his glittery tail - his smile was all but luminescent. The damn grin was addictive.  
Blade had to shake his front in denial - _‘There’s more to the kid than good-looking, you don’t need to be falling over someone half your age…’_ But it didn’t stop him from admiring the plane.  
He had never made his feelings known to a living soul. Those feelings he hoped to take to his grave. It took time to get to know him, and to look past his stubbornness and arrogance, but once he had, he found that the young SEAT was nothing short of extraordinary. In many ways, he reminded him of his past love...and yet still, he carried himself with a humbleness and solicitousness the likes of which he’d never seen in someone of his status. And, like his paint, he wore both sides of himself with pride, the sweet and savory combinations making him downright unforgettable.  
But such a thing shant be tainted by his borderline lustful admiration. He was, after all, a student, and he looked up to Blade as a teacher and mentor, a sort of idolization of his career - his second one anyways. Besides that, the air tractor wasn’t even thirty yet - the gap went out of the slightly unusual and into the potentially-seen-as-pedophilia. He couldn’t bear to ruin that perfect and perfectly happy light with his own desire. Dusty, so far as he could tell, didn’t feel that way anyways.  
But his attempts to ignore his own thoughts, which showed in the form of looking anywhere but at the crop duster, were unfortunately noticed.  
“Everything alright?” Dusty asked, looking away from himself to the Agustawestland, who was staring blankly at the ground. The words seemed to shake him from his stupor back to reality.  
“Huh? Oh..yeah, fine.” Though his intentions were to avoid the thought of the former crop duster, looking away only seemed to have prompted them further into existence.  
“Jus’ tired is all...think I’m gonna turn in early.” He decided to vacate the situation altogether, in favor of being left to deal with his thoughts alone. He was the only one who oversaw them, anyways.  
“Oh, hey-”  
 _‘Shit..’_  
“Along the way, I wanted to ask you something..”  
They were all basic enough work questions: when is this, how often do we do this, why do you pay me when I don’t need the money, can I redirect it to a charity place instead, how do you set that up, etc. etc…  
Dusty still hadn’t left Blade’s side as he rolled up to his own hangar. So much for being solitary. Even as Blade opened the doors of his hangar and made the implications that their conversation was now over, Dusty didn’t leave. He didn’t seem to _want_ to leave, either.  
When the crop duster finished his sentence and didn’t continue it, that was when Blade meant to sneak away, but as he had, he couldn’t stop himself from looking back up at the young plane. Damn it! Why was everything so complicated!? He wanted him gone but he wanted him to stay. He wanted him to leave and he wanted him to come back. What is desired is forbidden. What is forbidden wants desire.

“Blade?”

Worry began to seep into the young male’s expression. Blade hadn’t realized how much he must have shown his regretful indecision. He seemed almost flustered, cheeks starting to burn and turn slightly violet-colored against his red, as he was being pulled back into reality again only to remain in this twisted affair with himself over a fruitless matter.

What he never would have expected was for the other to understand.

“I’ve seen the way you get sometimes…” Dusty said suddenly. His voice was soft and mellow, and no hint of disgust or malice could be traced from it, “I’ve always wondered...but I never really considered it was real. I didn’t think you were like that.”  
The space between the two of them grew smaller - the Agustawestland could just barely hear the younger male’s engine reverberating idly. His words were softer still, breathier, or maybe that was just because he could feel the traces of heat off of his mouth when he spoke,  
“But, I’m guessing you kinda _are_ like that then...aren’t you?”  
“Like what?” The older male ventured, wondering if he really was on the same train of thought.  
“You care.”  
“I care about everyone.” Blade seemed to challenge.  
“You started caring about me.”

“I’ve _always_ cared about you..”

Blade finally met Dusty’s eyes, for the first time in their conversation - and he fell deep under the bright cerulean waves within them. They weren’t cold and cruel, as his own had since become, but they were lively and bright, curious even. They didn’t restrict or suffocate, they welcomed and loved. Accepted. Adored. _Inspired_.  
The only thing that took his gaze from the other’s was his own lids slipping close as he moved forward, neither in full control of themselves. Foreign lips met one another, dared to explore one another, and enjoyed what they offered to each other, purely and unhesitating. Soon it was not just lips, but tongues and cheeks, and chins and jawlines, an entire surface to be discovered, and to be mapped out and remembered for always.  
But as soon as they had begun, so too did they stop. Blade stopped himself suddenly, cheek still resting against the other’s, letting himself remember the world. He pulled away from the thing he longed for, acted against his will to have. This masterpiece could not be his to keep. It wasn’t his to claim in the first place.  
Dusty seemed to understand this perfectly, seamlessly drifting back to only regard his chief’s presence with a compliant nuzzle, before he backed away again. This was one he cared for deeply, but did not share the same desires with. But he didn’t treat him with any less respect or admiration now than he had the day he met him - the day he _really_ met him. The day he screwed up and walls came down, when he understood what it really meant to be all in. He was the same then that he is now.  
“I shouldn’t have you,” the helicopter now voiced, “so I won’t try to.” He seemed to lower himself further into the paved floor, respecting his student and trainee’s own thoughts and decisions.  
“Hey,” The red and orange plane brushed his nose cone across his pointed muzzle, coaxing him to look back up, “Just because we can’t be like...well, _this_ , doesn’t mean you have to push me away. I’m always here.”  
“...Thank you.” The old battalion chief said, “That means more to me than you know.”  
“Any time.” Dusty said.

In time, the two left each other’s presence again, Dusty to his own private hangar and Blade back to his. The night was calm and quiet across the base, stars twinkling from above the forested landscape. And for the first time since he’d begun to battle over this affair with the crop duster, Blade finally felt at peace with his mind again. How it was now, he could now believe, was the way it was meant to be. Platonic. Admired. And simply beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> -This piece highlights something kinda interesting about my Blade/Dusty headcanon here: Yes, Blade _does_ have romantic feelings for Dusty. But Dusty does not have romantic feelings for him. In their positions and with their age gaps, they both feel that they simply could never be. And Blade wouldn’t dare rob the young plane of the chance to find his true soulmate someday. So after knowing this and being honest and open to each other, they agree that how it is now is how it should always be. They are still bonded and close, but platonically, respectfully. The way it’s meant to be.


End file.
